The Christine Nursery & Festival Workshops Continued

Welcome to blog number 3!

THE CHRISTINE NURSERY, Kashitu

Last week we spent 5 days in Kapiri Mposhi working with children and staff from The Christine Nursery. After a late night packing and 4 hours sleep we were up at 5am on Sunday to catch the 6.30am bus to Kapiri. The plan was to stay in the nearby village of Kashitu where the nursery is based. However when we arrived we were told that due to an outbreak of cholera in the neighbouring village it wasn’t safe for us to go, or for large groups of people to gather there. So instead staff had come up with an alternative plan to run the workshops and stay in the nearby town of Kapiri Mposhi. The workshops were focused on introducing and developing creative ways of working in the classroom, something that is often lacking in schools in Zambia due to a lack of resources and training.

Teacher Training Day

We spent the first day working with the teachers and nursery volunteers, looking at using creative methods as a tool for learning. Activities included;

• Co-operative group games with and without a parachute (using names numbers, colours, animals, face paints, balls)
• Why creativity is important
• Using your imagination and being confident to be creative
• Creating a positive environment for children to share their ideas
• Sharing stories and songs (‘Ish’ Storybook By Peter Reynolds)
• Using recycled/found materials to be creative
• Making an alphabet banner/picture dictionary for display in the classroom
• Making parachute creatures

During the warm up games the parachute accidentally flew away and over into the neighbour’s garden. So, with our faces covered in face paints we went to ask for it back and the neighbour was not impressed and said “it frightened my chickens”, who had probably never seen anything like it before! The staff really enjoyed the games and came up with some good ideas for improvising.

We had some interesting discussions about understanding (or not) children’s art work, being positive, encouraging them to be creative, and how this enables them to be confident in themselves and in other situations in life. An example of this was given by one of the staff, suggesting that if children aren’t confident in their own ideas, they grow up to be shy, and for example in a village meeting won’t contribute, so solutions aren’t found to problems in the village. We also discussed the issue of parents not always understanding the value of the children's work, or even the value in sending their children to school and how this can sometimes be a problem for staff here.

After a lovely day with lots of laughing, the staff felt inspired to be creative and decided they wanted to make a banner to put on the front of the bus to welcome the children the next day, so we spent the evening working on it together. Thanks to Bornface, Joseph, Belina, Nelson, Regina, Sylvester, Pricilla and Margaret for a making us so welcome!

Baby Class

Day two was spent with the baby class (3 – 5 years) who arrived on the bus all timid and shy. We were told that some of the children will have seen very few muzungus (white people) before, and especially not have been taught by any. The theme of the workshop was numbers. We painted the children’s faces and practiced the games we had played the day before with the teachers. It took a while for the children to relax, but after a few games running underneath the parachute they were all smiling, giggling and shouting!

After a few renditions of ‘5 little monkeys’ and ‘Once I Caught a Fish Alive’ the children went outside exploring and had to collect 5 natural objects from the surrounding area. Then after looking at what they’d collected (leaves, fruits, grass etc), they used paint to print their found objects on paper, numbering them 1 - 5. After lunch (nshima of course!) and sharing more songs (we learnt some new ones to) the children used their handprints to print numeracy banners to decorate their classroom. After another lovely day the children left on the bus singing, with their faces painted and big smiles (the same as us!).

Older Class

Day three was spent with the older class (5 – 7 years), working on the theme of shapes and colours. After warm-up games all the children made a parachute using plastic bags (cut into squares), string and a stone they had collected. After lunch and some songs, we got into groups according to what colour and shape our face paint was and made a tabard to match (blue circle, yellow triangle or green square). We noticed how much the children’s cutting skills had improved since the morning activity. Most of them found it very hard to cut and some didn’t know how to hold a pair of scissors at first, so practicing cutting shapes was a good challenge! After painting the shapes we played more co-operative games using the colours and shapes as a starting point.

In the afternoon we also made some bubble mixture (water, washing up liquid and sugar) and blew bubbles using different shapes and found objects like plastic bottles. At the end of another lovely day……the children once again went home with painted faces, and a lot less shy than when they arrived! We were told that as the bus arrived back in the village their parents and peers were waiting for them, dancing and singing!

We left the nursery with some materials and a Creative Resource Pack we had compiled (including ideas, creative activities and resource alternatives) so that they can continue to be creative in the classroom! We had some lovely feedback from staff, and would love to go back and go the nursery itself and do some follow up work next time we’re in Zambia!

FESTIVAL WORKSHOPS

Our workshops with Barefeet Theatre at the children’s centres have continued, and we have started making some of the large costumes including:

- A huge canoe for 3 people at Mapode Boys (water). Using their initiative and making use of locally available resources, they used sticks from the maize which had already been harvested.

- A blue bus for 6 people to carry (air pollution). We had a great day with the children at Chisomo Centre last Saturday making the huge bus, and having some interesting discussions about religion! Again they used maize sticks available across the road from the centre.

- A crinoline skirt covered in banana leaves from the grounds of the centre, and flowers at Home of Joy (nature).

- An Animafwafwa made from a fish eagle and caterpillar at Lazarus!

- The children at Zambia Shanty have made some amazing costumes from rubbish!

Meanwhile at Ngombe Open Community School the children had great fun practicing their cutting skills, making Animafwafwa’s out of cardboard boxes and practicing parading around the classroom ready for the carnival procession.

The person sized world or ‘chalo’ as you say in Njanya is looking good, thanks to the help of our housemates……Tommy, Izzy and Olivia who are sadly leaving Zambia at the end of the week:(

With only 4 weeks to go until the climate change festival begins, there’s a busy few weeks ahead!

We are still gathering cardboard and plastic bottles from supermarkets and cafes around Lusaka. We spent yesterday afternoon walking around Shoprite in Manda Hill with 2 trollies asking everyone stacking shelves if we could have their empty boxes. By the time we left the shop assistants were finding us and dumping boxes in our already overflowing trollies! Mia was practicing for her dream appearance on Supermarket Sweep! We did get some very strange looks, especially when we were putting the brushes from brooms on our heads in fits of hysterics to see if they would work as caterpillar costumes!

KENYA

Although we’re not looking forward to leaving Zambia, we have booked our flights to Kenya on 4^th May and are making plans to work with 2 organisations there. After which we’ll be returning to the U.K on 23^rd May. Time seems to be going very fast fast here!

Thanks again for reading! We hope you've enjoyed it!

Sian and Mia.x

Thanks to Tommy (our housemate) for some of the photos above!:)

Workshops Begin!

Welcome back! Here’s what we’ve been up to since the last blog…..

Over the last 2 weeks we’ve been going into the children’s centres to introduce the theme of climate change and begin designing costumes for the festival. The 5 centres we’re working with are; Mapode Boys (Mutendere compound), Zambia Shanty (Garden compound), Home of Joy (Chongwe district), Chisomo (Linda compound) and Lazarus (Makeni compound). The workshops last for about 2 hours, but getting to them can sometimes take almost as long with big bags, various buses and of course…….THE RAINS!

Workshop 1

The first week we showed the children a short film of the Barefeet carnival 2008 (thanks for the film Gary!), to give those that have never been to a carnival an idea of what it’s like……the costumes, large-scale structures, music, dancing and the exciting and lively atmosphere created with over 1000 children walking through the streets of Lusaka!

With the help of the Barefeet facilitator’s translating from English to Nyanja/Bemba, we talked with the children about climate change, concentrating on their centre’s particular theme, which is either…..

• Nature
• Water
• Air
• Rubbish
• Animafwafwa – a made up word which means ‘animal mess’. The idea being that if humans destroy the world by not looking after it properly, all that will be left are cockroaches and strange creatures made from parts of different animals – hybrids!)

..........and then each child drew 2 pictures;

– The 1st of all the positive things about their theme, and what that particular aspect of the world would look like if we treated it well.

– The 2^nd of all the negative things about their theme, and what that particular aspect of the world will look like if we don’t look after it properly.

After feeding back about their 2 pictures and discussing issues that arose from these, we talked about what materials we could collect to make costumes for the carnival……plastics, cardboard, sticks, fruit pods, wire, cans, crisp packets, nshima sacks (Nshima is the staple food here – grownd down maize which is boiled into a thick sticky consistency, eaten with relish using your hands, and eaten everyday), Shake Shake cartons (very cheap local alcohol, a bit like a lumpy milkshake tasting of barley, and the cartons are scattered all over the streets), bottle tops etc………all items we can either find in the natural environment or that people usually throw away.

Disposing of rubbish is a huge problem in Zambia. Without any free refuse collection, people often throw rubbish in the streets and streams or burn it, all of which pollutes the environment and ultimately effects people’s health. The children’s task over the coming weeks is to collect these items so they can recycle them and create beautiful costumes!

We’ve brought our blagging skills to Zambia, and are doing our bit collecting huge amounts of cardboard from supermarkets. Squeezing it all into Syd’s taxi was pretty funny, and a strange sight for many people to see two muzungu’s (white people) in a car full of rubbish! It’s been really positive getting local businesses involved, and a good way of generating interest in the carnival. Several shops at Arcades (a shopping mall… AKA ‘The entertaining way to shop!’) are collecting plastic bottles, cardboard etc… Thanks to Mimosa, Shortys Shoe Shop and Spar we’ve managed to create a Zambian Scrapstore in our house!

Finally we showed the children a film from New Zealand called WOW (World of Wearable Art) to inspire them with creative ideas to make their costumes fantastic!

Each of the 5 centres will design and make one huge costume, as well as smaller costumes so that each child has something to wear at carnival and the fashion show. Those centres that we aren’t able to work with will make smaller costumes/accessories with their Barefeet facilitator. We ran a facilitator making day last week, so that each facilitator is confident in making these with the children in their centre, on whichever theme they are working to. They made some brilliant costumes!

Workshop 2

During our second workshop we looked at the pictures the children had drawn in the first session, and from these brainstormed words and ideas relating to their theme. Then after looking at some costume books we brought, and some examples of costumes/accessories/props the Barefeet facilitators and we had made, the children began designing a huge carnival costume for their centre!

Some of the centres started making and experimenting with ideas, which they’ll continue to work on over the coming weeks.

NGOMBE OPEN COMMUNITY SCHOOL (ZOCS)

We’ve also started our weekly workshops at Ngombe Open Community School, which is just a short walk from where we’re living, through what seems like people’s back gardens and across a couple of make shift bridges….especially fun in the rain! Last week we were followed for about 5 mins on our walk back home by a group of friendly, lively and very young children shouting “Muzungu, how are you? Muzungu, how are you?” over and over again until we’d left the compound…….replying didn’t seem to help, but it put a smile on our faces for the rest of the day!

At Ngombe Open Community School we are working with 2 classes of about 20 pupils (one young class, one older) who are also looking at the theme of climate change, and what people do in their community to contribute to or prevent this. They are also collecting recycled materials and making costumes for the festival. The group of 40 children will then come along to join in with the carnival in April wearing their costumes!

It’s been a busy but fun couple of weeks……..and so the countdown to carnival begins!!!

Thanks for reading!

Sian and Mia.x